Fabric

I've been using my current handbag pretty much every day for the last three years, and it was looking pretty crappy to be honest. Not to mention my very tired and grubby wallet that's been on the go for even longer.
A quick trip down the road to The Village Haberdashery, where I picked up some of this gorgeous canvas with neon yellow blobs:
As well as some Kona Highlight (the closest thing to neon yellow I could find), black Essex Yarn Dyed linen, a fat quarter of black and cream canvas, and a spool of neon yellow thread.
The Have-it-all Wallet pattern is a winner as far as I'm concerned. Exactly the right number of card pockets, a zippy bit for coins, and loads of other [Read more...]

***GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED***
I'm so excited to be guest blogging over at Girl Charlee this week, with a tutorial for a really fast and easy pair of pyjama bottoms. I have about a million* pairs of these, and they are perfect for kids too.
(*may be a slight exaggeration)
As a celebration of all things comfy, Mark at Girl Charlee is giving away a generous 3 m cut of fabric to make your very own pair of pjs (or pairs, if you've got a small person to sew for). All you need to do is pop over to the Girl Charlee website and join the mailing list via the little box on the home page, then come back here and leave a comment so that I can enter you into the draw. The giveaway is open for a [Read more...]

A while ago Aneela asked me if I would test her new patterns for a sewing wallet and (totally adorable) teeny weeny needle book and pouch. I said yes straight away and then promptly failed to get off my arse and make them for a couple of weeks. Oops. I thought they needed special treatment so I finally cracked open some Spoonflower Heather Ross FQs that I won at QuiltCon (that was a while ago - nearly time for the next one!).
(blimey, that paragraph was linktastic)
Anyhoo, first with the sewing pouch. I *love* this pattern. It's got everything you need for popping some handwork in your handbag (or schlepping it from room to room). The see-through pocket is so useful, and is assembled [Read more...]

My love of Oakshott fabrics is not exactly a secret. They’ve featured in many of my quilts, and had a starring role in several (most notably the Oakshott Explosion). That’s why I was so excited to call dibs on the beautiful purple and green Freesia bundle in the Oakshott Colourshott Bundle BlogHop hosted by Lynne.
As always, photographs just don’t do these fabrics justice - it’s impossible to see how they glow and shimmer unless you get to see them in person. I spent absolutely ages putting them in different orders, pairing them up and generally stroking them and can absolutely and confidently assert that they are at least five gazillion times more gorgeous in real life.
In [Read more...]

So I spent about six hours cutting into the precious and have enough strips to make 25 scrappy tripalong blocks. That means I have 150 different DS fabrics. Ahem. Here is a fairly dreadful and cobbled together photo of all of them on my design wall.droooooooooooooolAnd now I need your help because I am not sure what approach to take with the piecing. My inner obsessive says "keep it rainbowy, stupid" but I am truly, DEEPLY concerned that this will just not work and I should go for a much more random approach. Bear in mind that I don't have more of quite a few of these fabrics, so definitely do not want to stuff this up. Although on the plus side, they do look quite nice just up on the wall [Read more...]

Diving into the oh-so-tiny Denyse Schmidt hoard. Can you guess what I am up to if I tell you I am cutting 2.5 inch strips of every fabric?And I know this may seem a little unlikely, but I'm not sure I have enough.

When does a collection become an obsession?This is my hoard of Denyse Schmidt fabrics. Well, the pieces that are big enough to fold. I have a whole bag of Hope Valley scraps and assorted other bits hiding in a drawer. Hope Valley is my favourite ever line, I think, and I am getting a bit nervous that I don't have an entire, untouched FQ set to stroke use. I found myself rummaging around Etsy last night looking for Katy Jump Rope. Seriously, I need to get a grip.Fun, and a lovely lunch, was had by all at John Lewis yesterday when some of the LMQG went to see the mini quilt exhibition.They look so fab, in spite of the assorted mistakes in the labelling (typos, missing names, the same name more [Read more...]